Car-platform vestibule.



No. 722,097. PATENTED MAR. 3,1903.

G. GIBBS & H. PEARSON.

GAR PLATFORM VESTIBULE. APPLICATION FILED 001'. 2, 1902.

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h I II A- 5 YIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! GEORGE GIBBS, OF NEWV YORK, N. Y., AND HENRY PEARSON, OF SPRING- FIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

CAR-PLATFORIVI VESTIBULE.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 722,097, dated March 3, 1903.

Serial No. 125,695. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, GEORGE GIBBS, a resident of New York, in the county and State of New York, and HENRY PEARSON, a resident of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, citizens of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Oar-Platform Vestibules, of which the following is a specification.

In the construction of electric-motor cars it has been customary either to provide a motormans compartment inside the car, thus sacrificing valuable space, or to place the motormans compartment on the platform of the car, employing with this arrangement of the compartment a complicated system of doors and partitions. It is also a familiar practice to construct cars in which the electrical controllers and other apparatus to be handled by the motorman are placed upon the car-plat form without any other protection than the boxes in which they are incased. Under such conditions the entire front platform of a car is often given over to the motorman, thus cutting off a considerable portion of the space which would form the natural ingress and egress for passengers.

The object of the present invention is to provide a car in which a rapid loading and un- .30 loading of large numbers of passengers can be effected and the platform may be readily converted from a loading and unloading platform to a platform adapted for the sole or partial use of the motorman, or vice versa. 3 5 A further object is to so construct each car and the controlling apparatus for its doors or other movable parts that when two or more cars are coupled together in a train unobstructed platform-vestibules may be readily and conveniently provided without interfering with the quick loading and unloading of passengers and at the same time without sacrificing perfect protection for the controller apparatus from tampering by curious or malicious persons or from injury through accidental causes.

In carrying out our invention we provide a very simple system of doors and partitions by means of which a single door is made to serve the double purpose of closing off and protecting the controller apparatus and closing in the platform, either as may be desired. We also provide means whereby sliding side doors controlling access to the platform by way of the steps or gangways can be readily operated from a central point between two adjacent cars, so that a single operator can control without difliculty the ingress and egress of passengers to and from the abutting platforms of two succeedingcars. Bythis arrangementofdoors it results that the car-platforms are obstructed as little as possible either when used as motormens compartments or for loading and unloading.

Considered broadly, the invention is applicable to trailer-cars as well as electric-motor cars, and it may be also applied to railwaycars in general, although the invention has been particularly devised with reference to electric motor cars and trailers connected 7o therewith.

Our invention will be understood by ref erence to the accompanying drawings, in which I Figure 1 isa plan of a car-platform embodying some of our improvements; and Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of two of our cars coupled together to form a train, the car-bodies being shown in full lines, except where they are broken away to permit of enlarging the details of the car-platforms and the apparatus thereon.

In the drawings, 1 indicates the flooring of a car-platform, the buffer end of which appears at 2. The master-controller of the car or the train of cars, as the case may be, is shown at 3 and the brake-valve at 5. At 6 is shown a door which can be used in the position shown in dotted lines at 11 for closing in the entire platform and in the position shown in dotted lines at 9 for making a small cab or compartment for the motorman at the front end of a train or in the position illustrated in full lines at 20 for protecting the controller apparatus 3 and the brake apparatus 5 5 from interference or accident. The door 6 is hinged at 7 to one of the fixed panels 8 8 and is provided with a catch 4:, by means of which it can be temporarily secured to the other panel 8 in the closed position or to the end door-post of the car-body in the dotted position 9 or to a jamb 10, secured to one of the corner-uprights of the car-platform.

It will be observed that at the buffer end of the platform there are stationary permanent bulkheads 40 40 and that these bulkheads are joined to the panels 8 8 by means of posts 41 41, which form intermediate supports for the parts named and serve as side posts for the passage-way between the panels 8 8. In the position illustrated in full lines at 20 the door 6 protects the controlling mechanism, While the platform may be used for loading and unloading in the usual way. To permit of this and at the same time to provide for the proper vestibuling of the cars we employ side doors, one of which is shown in full lines at 15 as a sliding door, the construction on the opposite side of the car-platform being the same or similar. The operating-lever for this sliding door is shown at 16, this lever being a handle applied to a rocking shaft 17, mounted in suitable brackets 18 18. By means of a series of angular levers connected with the rocking shaft 17 the door 15 may be moved back into a space 19 left open in the car-body. It is not thought necessary to show and describe in detail in the present application the system of levers connected with the rocking shaft, as this system of levers and the general details of the apparatus connected therewith may be varied, and as the special system which we prefer to employ forms the subject of a separate application filed by us on October 2, 1902, Serial No. 125,694. In fact, the special means for operating the sliding doors may consist of other apparatus besides the system of levers referred to, more particularly an apparatus operated by airpressure, either through a system of air compression or a Vacuum, or,indeed, by an electric controlling device, the main condition being that the operating switch or lever, as the case may be, should be located at a central point on or between the platforms of adjacent cars. In this connection it should be understood that there is a similar operatinglever on the opposite side of the passage-way between the panels 8 8 and that similar operating-levers will be found at the end of any car that may be coupled to the car illustrated in Fig. 1, so that an operator standing on one of the car-platforms may operate four sliding doors, as will be readily understood.

There might be in place of a swinging door, such as 6, a sliding door capable of closing in the platform and also capable of being moved into a position approximating that shown in full lines at 20.

In general it may be said that with our invention applied the interior of the car is undisturbed, and the car-platform is converted to the sole or partial use of the motorman by providing at the most a single additional door.

We claim as our invention- 1. In an electric-motor car, a car-platform,

electrical controller apparatus normally ex posed upon the said platform, sliding doors at opposite sides of the said platform, and a centrally-located door adapted to close off a portion of the platform as a motormans cab inclosing the controller apparatus, all in combination with independent means for controlling the sliding doors on opposite sides of the platform.

2. In an electric-motor car, a car-platform, electrical controller apparatus normally exposed upon the said platform, sliding doors at opposite sides of the said platform, and a centrally-located door in the end bulkhead of the platform adapted to close off a portion of the platform as a motormans cab inclosing the controller apparatus.

3. A number of electric-motor cars arranged in a train, electrical controller apparatus on each car, means for vestibuling the train of cars, and means brought into operation by the act of opening the passage-way between successive cars in the train for protecting the controller apparatus at the contiguous end of the said cars, the controller apparatus being normally exposed, and the act of opening the passage-way serving to shut them off from access from outsiders.

4. In an electric-motor car, a oar-platform, provided With sliding side doors, stationary end bulkheads for the said platform, and a movable platform door capable of having three locked or engaging positions, as described.

' 5. In an electric-motor car, a car-platform, electrical controller apparatus normally exposed upon the said platform, movable doors at opposite sides of the said platform, means for controlling the position of the said doors, and a centrally-located door adapted to occupy any one of three positions, one for closing in the entire platform, one for forming a motormans cab or compartment, and one for protecting the controller apparatus.

6. In an electric-motor car, a car-platform, electrical controller apparatus normally exposed upon the said platform, sliding doors at opposite sides of the platform, and means located at or near the outer central end of the platform for controlling the sliding doors.

7. In an electric-motor car, a car-platform, sliding doors at the sides of the said platform, controlling the steps or gangways leading thereto, and means located at or near the outer end of the said platform for controlling the sliding doors.

8. A number of electric-motor cars coupled together to form a train, end platforms on each car sliding doors at the sides of adja cent end platforms, and means accessible from a central point between adjacent cars for operating the sliding doors of two abutting plat forms.

9. In an electric-motor car, a car-platform, having stationary panels, as 8, 8, one forming one side of a space for the electric controller apparatus, and the other forming a at opposite sides of the said platform, and a centrally-located door adapted to close off all or a portion of the platform as a motormans cab or compartment inclosing the controller apparatus.

12. In an electric-motor car, a car-platform, provided with sliding doors, stationary end bulkheads for the said platform, and central platform-door capable of having two positions, the said door being a sliding door and being adapted in one position to close in the entire platform and in the other position to protect the controller apparatus.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 26th day 0 of September, A. D. 1902.

GEORGE GIBBS. HENRY PEARSON.

Witnesses: v

Tnos. I-I. BROWN, WM. H. CAPEL. 

